State will build new 1-95 bridge at Fredericksburg

The project will include a new Rappahannock River bridge between Route 17 (right) and Route 3, along with replacement of the existing spans.

Slated for completion in 2022, the project will add three lanes from Route 17 (top) more than six miles south, past Route 3.

From VDOT press release
RICHMOND —The Commonwealth Transportation Board on Wednesday awarded a $101.6-million contract to build another bridge across the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg for southbound Interstate 95 traffic.

Wagman Heavy Civil Inc. of North Dinwiddie will build the river crossing project in Stafford County, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County.

The project seeks to reduce I-95 congestion in the Fredericksburg area with additional lanes between Routes 17 near Falmouth and Route 3 near Central Park without merging into I-95’s general purpose lanes.

The Rappahannock River Crossing project will add three new general purpose lanes for I-95 south, stretching six miles in the current highway’s median. The new lanes would begin in the vicinity of Truslow Road, just north of Exit 133 at Route 17 in Stafford. The new lanes will end in Spotsylvania, 1.2 miles south of Exit 130 at Route 3 in Fredericksburg.

The three existing I-95 southbound lanes in that area will be converted to local traffic lanes, also known as collector-distributor lanes.

A new bridge will be built over the Rappahannock River parallel to the existing I-95 southbound bridge to carry the new general purpose traffic lanes.

Additionally, the bridges that carry I-95 north and south over Route 17 will be replaced as part of the project. Both bridges are structurally deficient, which does not imply that the bridges are likely to collapse or are unsafe, but that there are elements of the bridges that need to be monitored and/or repaired.

Construction will begin in summer 2018 and will be completed in 2022.

The I-95 southbound Rappahannock River Crossing will be the next project as part of the Atlantic Gateway improvements. Virginia received a $165 million FASTLANE grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2016 for Atlantic Gateway, a $1.4 billion set of highway, transit and rail projects in the I-95 corridor.

The USDOT’s FASTLANE competitive grant program, is part of a $4.6 billion, five-year program created by the FAST Act, which was signed into law in December 2015 and makes large-scale national investments to improve freight and highway mobility across the United States. Every grant under the program will be subject to a 60-day congressional review before final grant awards are announced.

For more information on the I-95 southbound Rappahannock River Crossing, click here.